Beijing Daily: On September 22, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said when hosting the first Ministerial Meeting of the Partners in the Blue Pacific on the margins of the UNGA that the US is deeply committed to the Pacific. In a briefing to reporters after the meeting, Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs in the US National Security Council Kurt Campbell said that China’s ambitions in the Pacific are a concern for some Pacific Island leaders. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: We welcome the US’s expressed desire to give Pacific Island Countries (PICs) more development support. We hope the US can match its words with actions.

What the PICs need is mutually beneficial cooperation based on equality, not self-serving expediency driven by geopolitical calculations. The PICs have the right to independently conduct exchanges with other countries. Their right should be respected and not restricted or denied. 

China upholds the principles of equal treatment, mutual respect, win-win cooperation and openness and inclusiveness in developing relations with the PICs. This has been welcomed and supported by the PICs. China stands ready to work with all parties in the spirit of openness, transparency, opening-up and inclusiveness to jointly promote the development and prosperity of the PICs.